Spartacus: Life or Legend
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
‘I am Spartacus!’ In the field of epic film making, the 1960 historical drama ‘Spartacus’ is legendary. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, and starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier, it is undoubtedly a classic. But how much of the plot has emerged from the true story of a Thracian gladiator and slave who escaped his Roman captors and led an unsuccessful but impressive rebellion against their oppressors? And how much of the film’s message was formed by the personalities involved in its creation, and the context in which it was made?
In her own words, Dr Fiona Radford devoted years of her life to the man with the most memorable chin cleft in the world - Kirk Douglas, specifically as Spartacus. Her thesis traced the production history of this film, examining in particular the effect that the turbulent process had on the portrayal of female characters. Having taught at Macquarie University, ANU and the University of Sydney, she currently teaches history at secondary school level, and her conversation with Tristan in this episode is an eye-opener to 1950s film making as well as the legend of Spartacus.
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Transcript
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| 1:00.0 | UK. |
| 1:01.0 | It's the ancients on history hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in |
| 1:07.4 | today's podcast we are talking about Spartacus but in particular we are looking |
| 1:12.0 | at Spartacus through the lens of one of the most famous |
| 1:15.2 | ancient history films ever produced, the 1960 epic historical drama Spartacus featuring the likes of Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Olivier. |
| 1:26.2 | Now to talk about this film's remarkable extraordinary production history, I was delighted |
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